Arts, Briefly; Getty Trust Paid Some Legal Fees in Antiquities Case

By CAROL VOGEL; Compiled by Lawrence Van Gelder

Published: June 30, 2006

The J. Paul Getty Trust paid $64,000 in legal fees last year for Barbara Fleischman, who was then a trustee, when she testified in a deposition on behalf of the former Getty curator Marion True. Ms. True, who has been accused by the Italian government of conspiring to deal in looted artifacts, went on trial in Rome in November. The Los Angeles Times reported the payment yesterday, saying that the Getty's board agreed to compensate Ms. Fleischman despite warnings from its lawyers in 2003 that covering such an expense could jeopardize the trust's nonprofit status. In a telephone interview yesterday Ms. Fleischman said she had not asked the board to pay her legal fees and that she ''was also never aware that there were any concerns or questions about any reimbursement.'' Ron Hartwig, a Getty spokesman, said yesterday that ''there was a lively debate, and the board did agree to pay those legal fees,'' and that the Getty reported the expenditure on its tax forms and alerted the California state attorney general's office of the board's decision to pay the legal fees. ''They were considered an expense in connection with Marion True's case,'' Mr. Hartwig said. Ms. Fleischman resigned from the Getty board in January after reports in The Los Angeles Times that she had made a personal loan to Ms. True. The attorney general opened an investigation into the Getty Trust's finances last summer to determine whether it had violated state laws governing its tax-exempt status. CAROL VOGEL